Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

Connie Dieken This month, we asked Connie Dieken to share with us some exclusive information on our Director's Cut Blog about what she has been up since leaving the WKYC family in our "Where Are They Now Feature?" We have video of Connie anchoring the 11 pm news at the end of the story. Connie spent 16 years broadcasting the news to Cleveland television viewers, beginning at Channel 3 in 1984. Her first duties at the station were as weekend anchor and consumer reporter. She quickly moved up and joined co-anchor Tom Sweeney on the anchor desk for the 5 PM broadcast...and became a main anchor of Channel 3 News at 6 & 11 PM. Her work garnered numerous high profile communication awards including Emmys, Tellys and being named Best TV Host by Cleveland Magazine. Viewers always loved Connie for her friendly & warm approach to bringing them the news of the day. Also during her stay at Channel 3, she married former Browns offensive lineman Doug Dieken. Her q...

Fellow WKYC Producer/Director Matt Babb has been researching High Definition TV as he upgrades...and shares with us some information you might interested in regarding where to find our local HD channels. Here are the analog TV channels and their corresponding "over the air" HD channel assignments. Note: When tuning though, you will still see the stations displayed as X.1, X.2, X.3 (depending on how many multi-cast channels each station offers). Station-Analog (New Digital) WKYC-TV 3 (Digital 2) - Displayed as 3.1, 3.2, etc. ***Will Move to Digital Ch 17** WEWS-TV 5 (Digital 15) - Displayed as 5.1, 5.2, etc. WJW-TV 8 (Digital 31) - Displayed as 8.1, 8.2, etc. WOIO-TV 19 (Digital 10) - Displayed as 19.1, 19.2, etc. WVPX-TV 23 (Digital 59) - Displayed as 23.1, 23.2, etc. **Will Move to Digital Ch 23*** WVIZ-TV 25 (Digital 26) - Displayed as 25.1, 25.2, etc. WUAB-TV 43 (Digital 28) - Displayed as 43.1, 43.2, etc. WNEO-TV 45 (Digital 46) - Displayed as 45.1, 45.2, etc. WEAO-TV 49 ...

Sad to report that former TV show host Tom Snyder died Sunday in San Francisco from complications associated with leukemia which he announced in 2005. Snyder was not your typical broadcaster....and usually smoked cigarettes during his interviews. But, he was polished and a great interviewer. He left "The Tomorrow Show" which followed "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" on NBC and WKYC in 1982. (He was host from 1973 to 1982). In 1978, Tom brought his show to town with then Mayor Dennis Kucinich over breakfast at Tony's Diner at W. 117th & Lorain Avenue. He then returned to late night television on CBS with the "Late, Late Show" following David Letterman more than 20 years later. Tom was eventually replaced by Craig Kilborn on that show. Tom held a brief stint as an anchor at KYW-TV in Cleveland, currently WKYC, at age 29. Known for his improvised and relaxed style and hardy laughs, Snyder did a number of memorable interviews including John Lennon...

According to CareerBuilder.com survey, some TV bosses are pretty close to the real thing. When asked which TV boss most reminds them of their own boss, the most popular responses included: 1. Sam Malone from "Cheers" 2. Charlie from "Charlie's Angels" 3. Judge Judy from "Judge Judy" 4. Donald Trump from "The Apprentice" 5. Simon Cowell from "American Idol" 6. Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons" 7. Miranda Bailey from "Grey's Anatomy" 8. Michael Scott from "The Office" 9. Tyra Banks from "America's Next Top Model" 10. Jack from "Lost" Courtesy: CareerBuilder.com

It's been a really bad couple of days for news helicopters. Another helicopter carrying a pilot and two traffic reporters crashed landed after losing power Monday morning in Texas (near Grand Prairie), leaving the passengers bruised but alive. Chip Waggoner, who was reporting for Dallas Fox O&O KDFW-TV, told his station that the aircraft lost power about 7 a.m. and that pilot Curtis Crump was able to make a hard emergency landing. Waggoner said he and Crump appeared to be unhurt, and radio traffic reporter Julie DeHarty was sore but able to walk. DeHarty is the traffic reporter for Dallas radio stations KRLD-AM and KVIL-FM. Courtesy: KDFW-TV

Updated: 8:50 PM To watch compelling video taken from the KPNX chopper of the accident, CLICK HERE -------- It was bound to happen at some point - and today, it did... two news helicopters covering a police chase collided in mid air and crashed in Phoenix, Arizona, this afternoon. Our Gannett sister station KPNX (which did not have one of the two choppers involved in the accident) reports both the pilots and photographers on each of the two aircraft died when the helicopters collided over Steele Indian School Park. The helicopters, as well as those from other stations, were covering a police chase at the time. There did not appear to be any casualties on the ground. Channel 15, the local ABC affiliate, reported that pilot Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak were on board their aircraft. Channel 3, the an independent station, reported that pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox were on their aircraft. For the latest information on this story, we refer you to the KPNX ...

Our sister publicaton, USA Today, continues its 25th Anniversary celebration with Weekly Top 25 lists. This week's list looks at the Top 25 Ads "We Can't Get Out Of Our Heads." Here are the Top 10: 1. Life Alert: I've Fallen, and I Can't Get Up! (1990) 2. Apple Macintosh: 1984 (1984) 3. Wendy's: Where's the Beef? (1984) 4. Isuzu: Joe "Trust Me" Isuzu (1986) 5. Energizer: Energizer Bunny (1989) 6. Bartles & Jaymes: Thank You For Your Support (1985) 7. California Raisin Advisory Board: Heard It Through The Grapevine (1986) 8. Budweiser: Croaking Frogs (1995) 9. Bush campaign: Willie Horton (1988) 10. California Milk Processors Board: Got Milk? (1993) To read the rest of the list, CLICK HERE on the USA Today website. Courtesy: USA Today

If you were watching Channel 3 News Today at 5:00 am Wednesday morning, you may have noticed something unusual - the anchors were forced outside after the station's fire alarm sounded. Although, there was no fire - there was a low water pressure issue in the building which set the system off as a precaution. Barb, John and Hollie spent the first 15 minutes anchoring the show from in front of the building, since you would not have been able to hear them over the alarm. As they say, the show must go on...and it did!

Gannett, parent of WKYC-TV, has named Dave Lougee as president of the Broadcasting Division for Gannett Co., Inc., effective July 30th. Lougee, who is executive vice president/Media Operations of Belo Corp., replaces Roger Ogden, who retired on July 1. "Dave's background in award-winning journalism, his experience running a strong affiliate operation and his knowledge of Gannett make him a perfect person to head up our Broadcasting Division," said Craig Dubow, chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We are thrilled he will be joining us." As executive vice president/Media Operations for Belo, Lougee has been in charge of the company's 19 TV stations and 4 cable news operations outside of Dallas. In 2005, he was a senior vice president of Belo. He joined Belo in 1998 as news director at KING-TV in Seattle/Tacoma, becoming president and general manager of Belo's TV and cable operations in Seattle/Tacoma in 2000. Lougee was vice president/News at ...

Memorial Contributions: Bethesda on the Bay Lutheran Church or the The Huntington Playhouse, 28601 Lake Road, Bay Village, Ohio 44140 -------------------- CLICK HERE to see video of John in this morning's mention of his passing on Channel 3 News Today from our website, WKYC.COM . CLICK HERE to see an ad when John was anchor of the 10 pm News at WKBF CLICK HERE to post your memories & comments about John -------------------- Former WKYC reporter, John Herrington passed away Tuesday evening (7/24) at age 76. Herrington joined worked here at WKYC for twenty-five years as a reporter beginning in 1971 as a reporter, and in-studio & field anchor frequently reporting on events of national interest for NBC during the period that it owned & operated WKYC. He took early retirement from the station in 1993. John was best known at Channel 3 as the "Energy Warden" and his stylish hats. John came to Cleveland from Kansas City, MO, where he worked at WDAF-Radio and TV for...

TiVo's new, wallet-friendly high-definition digital video recorder debuts today. The DVR pioneer begins taking orders for the new machine, priced at under 300 dollars, on its Web site this morning, and units are expected to hit retail outlets by early next month. The TiVo HD DVR has many of the same technical features as its Series-3 cousin, which is priced at 800 dollars: it has two tuners, so subscribers can record two different shows in HD at the same time while watching a third, recorded show. It also has two built-in slots for CableCARD, allowing users to access digital programming without a separate device from the cable TV provider. The new model will have a smaller hard drive -- 160 gigabytes instead of 250, meaning it can store about 20 hours of high-definition programming or up to 180 hours of standard programming. Courtesy: WKYC.COM

Online video reached 81 million people or 63% of US Internet users as of March 2007, up for 70 million just 6 months ago. Net video viewing was found to be addictive to TV viewing rather displacing; 33% of those surveyed said watching video online actually led to an increase in TV viewing. Consumers indicated that greater awareness of where to find the videos they are after, better navigation interfaces and availablility of internet video via home television sets could significantly drive future broadband video content use. Courtesy: CTAM/Neilsen Entertainment & NielsenConnect

To View NBC's Fall Preview: CLICK HERE --------- NBC has announced its fall premiere dates for its weeknight primetime lineup. WEEKNIGHT PRIMETIME Monday: 8p Chuck 9/24 9p Heroes 9/24 10p Journeyman 9/24 Tuesday: 8p The Biggest Loser 9/11 930p The Singing Bee 10/2 ***NEW DATE*** 10p Law & Order: SVU 9/25 Wednesday: 8p Deal or No Deal (Monday Debut 9/17, Wednesday debut 9/26) 9p Bionic Woman 9/26 10p Life 9/26 Thursday: 8p My Name Is Earl 9/27 830p 30 Rock 10/4 9p The Office 9/27 930p Scrubs 10/25 10p ER 9/27 Friday: 8p Deal or No Deal (new day) 9/28 9p Las Vegas 9/28 (then moves to 10p) 9p Friday Night Lights 10/5 WEEKEND PRIMETIME Saturday: 8p Dateline NBC 9p Drama Series (repeats) Sunday: (Fall 2007) 7p Football Night in America 8p NBC Sunday Night Football Sunday: (January 2008) 7p Datelline NBC 8p Law & Order 9p Medium 10p Lipstick Jungle

WKYC has announced that Dave Chudowsky is joining the Channel 3 Sports team from ONN in Columbus where he was a sports reporter, photographer & editor. Previous to Columbus, Dave also worked in Toledo and interned at WKYC back in the late 90's when the station was still located at E. 6th Street. Dave has also recently appeared as a guest on "All Bets Are Off with Bruce Drennan" on SportsTime Ohio where he has made a number of appearances leading up to his hiring by WKYC. Dave is a graduate of Bay Village High School. While at ONN, Dave did a lot of work covering The Ohio State University and knows plenty about the Browns, Indians and Cavs. Dave replaces Brian Colleran on the WKYC's sports desk along with Sports Director Jim Donovan and reporter/weekend anchor Joe Brown as we continue to bring our local viewers the best sports coverage in the market.

With the traditional analog TV set, you generally needed to sit about 8 feet away from a 32 inch screen to get the best picture quality. If you were closer, you would start to notice the scanning lines that form your picture. Today, the HDTV (and HDTV capable) sets have much higher resolution screens that allows you to put a much larger set in your room or gives you the choice of sitting much closer - based on your preference. But keep in mind, you want to measure your room and go with a size that is comfortable, not crowded. High quality video material like DVD's and HDTV programs look amazing on these new sets. But you may also find that the noise and distortion in lower-quality analog signals (like standard broadcast and cable TV) are exposed and magnified. That's why the suggested viewing distance chart below offers a range for each screen size, based on suggestions from manufacturers. If most of your viewing is DVD quality or better, you'll see more details by sittin...

From: Jim in Parma Q: How many more pixels are their between regular TV and High Definition TV? A: Well, it depends on what type of HD capability your TV has. An ordinary analog TV (like the ones we are used to) has "only" 346,600 pixels on the screen. An 720 HD TV has 921,600 pixels. A full HD 1080 has 2,073,600. For the best picture quality, a 1080 is the way to go.. though a 720 will do for most people who want HD without the huge price tag.

Cleveland Cavs star Lebron James will host the season premiere of "Saturday Night Live" on NBC and WKYC on September 29th at 11:30 PM it has been announced by a publicist for the network. The 22-year-old James will be the latest, prominent athlete to host "S-N-L" -- following in the footsteps of his boyhood idol, N-B-A superstar Michael Jordan, who hosted the show in 1991. Last season, Colts quarterback Peyton Manning also hosted an episode. Perhaps his recent stint as "Bobby Brown" at the ESPY's Awards on ESPN got him some notice... If not, it just could have the positive reviews he got from just co-hosting that show earlier this month with comedian/talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

WKYC is launching a new weather blog called "Fair Weather Fans" which features all things local weather for the Greater Cleveland Area. This will include audio forecasts, graphics from the Channel 3 Weather Plus Forecast Center, the latest watches and warnings & information about various weather phenomena . You can post your storm reports & pictures that will aid our forecasting team with severe weather events. We might even use some of your pictures on the air. Get a sneak peak and bookmark the blog at: www.wkyc.com/weblog/weather

The newest member of the Channel 3 Sports team, Joe Brown, is this week's "Get to Know Team 3" feature. Joe came to WKYC from Altitude Sports in Denver. His first day was Thursday, May 17th. His first assignment was covering the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals. We recently sat down with Joe and asked him the following questions: Q: How did you decide your calling was to be a sportscaster? Joe: When I was 15 years old worked in the press box at Mac Arthur Stadium in Syracuse. Just knew that the only thing I wanted to do was to be around sports. Q: You last worked & lived in Denver, how does that city's spirit compare to Cleveland? (Both have die hard sports fans) Joe: Denver was a lot of fun. But there is no comparison. People there follow the Broncos. But here fans love the Browns, Indians, Cavs and Ohio State unconditionally. So I have noticed a big difference. Q: What is your favorite sport to do play-by-play for? Joe: Without a doubt baseball. At m...

New co-boss at NBC Entertainment, Ben Silverman, has announced some tweaks to the fall programming line up at NBC-TV. Among the more noteable: * "Deal or No Deal" is out from the 8 pm Monday timeslot. It will be replaced with the new series "Chuck" which joins "Heroes" & "Journeyman." Mondays will be a night of sci-fi * "The Biggest Loser" will be expanded to 1 1/2 hours, with the new reality show "The Singing Bee" to finish out block. "The Singing Bee" moves from Friday Night and "Chuck" moves to Mondays. * NBC has signed fired "Grey's" actor Isaiah Washington for a guest role in "Bionic Woman." * NBC also has signed a deal with producer Norman Lear ("All in the Family") to produce a one-hour dramedy (drama & comedy) called "Phenomenon"about a mother who re-enters the Wall Street workplace and finds herself pitted against her late husband's ruthless p...

From: Sam in Highland Heights Q: I am an avid watcher of Channel 3 News, and also have an interest in the World of Broadcasting. Every now and then I visit your Director's Cut Blog, and enjoy reading it...I recall a few months back (January) you said that you would post a video of behind the scenes of a newscast. I was wondering if you still plan on doing it...Another question I had was will WKYC ever stream their newscasts online (like WMAQ in Chicago)? A: Do I get extra pay for two part questions? The answer to your first question about the behind the scenes look at the news. Yes, I am still planning on doing that... When, I am not sure. There are some legal issues regarding using video on the web that may appear during a show I use - which makes the project a little more time consuming than I can get involved with right now since we are in the middle of Indians season and all we do for Sportstime Ohio too. But it's still on the agenda.. Secondly, we are not planning on strea...

From: Dan in Akron Q: Hi Frank, what did you think of the Channel 45/49 show about the loss of Akron's only local TV station? A: I got a chance to Tivo the show on Saturday...and overall, I thought the show was pretty comprehensive, but at times really dragged on about factors that may or may not have contributed to the loss of WAKC as a news operation. Yes, WAKR/WAKC did have a factors going against it - but it may have been the lack of direct market competition that doomed it more. If Akron would have had 3 or 4 local TV stations, there would have been a much better chance of the city standing apart from the Cleveland market in Arbitron, then Nielsen's eyes. But since there wasn't, the lone station just got absorbed into Cleveland - which then suffered because it never had ratings, in relation. I think the Berk family made a bad mistake is selling the station. They feared they couldn't compete, but I don't think had enough courage to keep the station going in unce...

As I was reading Eric Mansfield's blog tonight, I thought I'd share the following article he posted regarding an article about the recent documentary on Akron's Newscasts. That will re-air again this Saturday Morning at 3 AM on Channels 45/49. While this new program hasn't been added to their video on demand web service yet, you can watch Twentyfourhours , a program first aired in 2001 about our local TV news at that time. To watch, CLICK HERE ------------------ From Eric's Blog: Much has been made on a few media blogs and elsewhere about the documentary that aired a few nights ago about the death and rebirth of TV News in Akron. It will re-air at 3 a.m. this Saturday morning on PBS 45/49. Some liked it while others didn't. I still need to see it before I can weigh in. If the topic really interests you, there's another documentary out there that is exceptionally well done, and it's available for free on the Internet. Twentyfourhours was put together ...

Several weeks ago, we mentioned former WKYC reporter/anchor Lisa Colagrossi in a story ( CLICK HERE ) about the WABC TV studios catching fire in New York City. Lisa has worked 6 years now at WABC as an early morning reporter/fill-in anchor. Ironically, Lisa is the one who covered the story on the fire which gave us the idea to find out what's she has been up to since leaving WKYC . Lisa tells us that she first headed to Florida where she went to work for former WKYC News Director Dick Moore (still her favorite) and WKYC General Manager Brooke Spectorsky who were both in Orlando at the time at Channel 7. Lisa's first duty was a 5:30 PM anchor and would add the 11 pm newscast to her resume. Her husband's career then took her to the Big Apple in 2001. Lisa joined WABC -TV on the Sunday after the World Trade Center disaster as a freelance reporter and hit the ground running. Lisa has also covered other major stories including the crash of flight 587 in the Rockaways ....

HDTV penetration among cable subscribers has nearly doubled in the past year with 29% of cable customers claiming they have an HD set. That compares with 15% last year, according to new figures released by the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing ( CTAM ). Digital cable customers are the most likely to make the leap, with 41% of the digital cable homes now HD ready. Most homes that haven't upgraded, but plan to do so in the next 12 months say they will order a cable package to go with it within a month of their HDTV purchase. 83% say they will order at least basic cable 77% say they will get a digital package. Courtesy: CTAM

For years, all your favorite TV stations in the Greater Cleveland area, including WKYC , have branded themselves by their analog channel numbers. For us, it's Channel 3 as in "Channel 3 News." Channel 5 is " Newschannel 5 ." Channel 8 is "Fox 8 News." You know the drill. But with the upcoming move of TV stations by the FCC to new digital channels in 2009, what will stations be called? The simple answer is: still Channel 3, 5, and 8. In the analog world, there is a direct relationship between the channel number and the RF frequency. In the digital world, this relationship becomes indirect (but linked) using an electronic system called PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol). You can read more on the specifics at http://www.psip.org/ The PSIP is data that is transmitted along with the station's digital TV signal to alert your new digital TV where to find a station on its tuner. The PSIP identifies both the DTV channel and for now, the N...

A Reminder: This show will air again this Saturday, July 14th at 3 AM on Channels 45/49 if you are interested. -------------------------------- From our friends at Ohio Media Watch : WNEO/45-WEAO/49 "PBS 45 & 49" will air a special tonight, Tuesday, at 9 PM titled "Akron, Ohio: The City Where Commercial Television News Went Black". We'll presume it delves, in-depth, into the saga most of our readers probably know well...the end of local news on then-ABC affiliate WAKC/23 (nee' WAKR-TV), which eventually got sold to the PAX TV folks and was stripped of its news and ABC affiliation.The saga continued, as with help from the city of Akron, local over-air TV news was reborn as "PAX 23 News", produced by WKYC/3 from a new bureau in the heart of downtown Akron. That newscast went off the over-air signal last year, when PAX TV's agreement with WKYC parent Gannett Broadcasting (and many other companies running PAX affiliates) ended. And to complete ...

" OriginalAmateurHour .com" is the official website for the Original Amateur Hour, the radio and TV series that started the talent competition craze that continues to fascinate audiences across the world. The show helped launch the careers of over 50 majors stars including Frank Sinatra. Long-time producer and show veteran Albert Fisher launched the website in 2005 to help promote and sell an archival DVD of the show, but the site has become a place where many of the 1 million of the show's former performers can obtain a copy of their lost 15 minutes of fame, which is provided on VHS at no profit as a service to the OAH community. But the site also showcases some rare TV and radio memorabilia. Check out the site for some memories: www.OriginalAmateurHour.com

NEW INFORMTION: Granting a reprieve from near cancellation, NBC has decided to renew Donald Trump's reality show "The Apprentice" for a seventh season - and eighth season, at least. In mid-May, "The Apprentice" did not appear on NBC's 2007-2008 primetime roster but after NBC hired Ben Silverman, talks between the network, Trump and executive producer Mark Burnett resumed. The new season will feature celebrity contestants and the list of who will participate has not been released yet. Instead of getting hired by The Donald for one of his real estate enterprises, the celebrities will raise money for various charities. In addition, Trump's children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, will appear in several episodes as boardroom advisers. Trump and NBC also have a partnership involving the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants as both were renewed last March through 2010.

From: Terry Burhans, former WKYC Meteorologist - now in San Diego at XETV... Q: Frank...Nice work on your "Where are They Now?" blog (If you missed the article I did on Terry recently, CLICK HERE ) Here is something to add to your update...I'm Brian Christie's sidekick on "The Boomer Show" on Wealth TV. Check out our site www.Boomershow.tv or you'll get a great High Definition clip at www.wealthtv.net . Life here is huge! No Lake Effect. You mentioned Steve Brown...he's in San Antonio Tx. Our "Mr. Inside & Mr. Outside" promos were in High Definition and were memorable to me because we shot them in New York in Queens in a huge 80 foot ceiling sound stage...The tape recorder they used that day was the only one in America at the time that recorded High Def and it's speed was 30 inches per second...(30 1ps) We did three segments... "Rain"...while Steve was safe and sound in the studio at the weather set I was chroma keyed on...

Thanks to my WKYC directing colleague, Matt Babb, for tipping me off to this one... Those of us who have Tivo or other DVR's know how nice it is to skip over the commercials in the shows we record. But, NBC is trying to figure out a way to keep our attention as those spots go zipping by. According to an article in the New York Times, NBC's research department is trying to convince advertisers viewers are just as engaged while watching fast-forwarded commercials as they are when watching live TV. NBC-commissioned a study by Innerscope to measure biometrics such as heart rate, eye movement and breathing patterns. Viewers who watched the first 20 seconds of live ads scored an "engagement" score of 66 while those watching the same ads in Fast Forward scored a 68. It's fascinating reading... Read the entire article. CLICK HERE

Congrats to Jennifer and her husband Joe on the birth of their daughter, Julia Rose, who was born just after 9 am this morning. Julia weighed in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and is 20 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing well. Jennifer and her husband also have two sons. Since Jen has become a mom, she now works part-time here at WKYC. Send your emails to Jennifier at: jennifermurphy@wkyc.com

This is a group of classic Channel 3 Promos from around 1989, courtesy of the "Director's Cut" archives. This latest batch includes cameos from Tom Beres, Rick Jackson, Doug Dieken, Judd Hambrick, Doreen Gentzler, Jim Mueller, Joe Conway & a young Stefani Schaeffer. Feel free to post your own comments and share your memories. Just click on the videos to watch. If you can't view them on this page, CLICK HERE

NBC's big Live Earth concert is scheduled for this Saturday...7/7/07...and will be shown around the world in 8 cities on all 7 continents. 100 different musical acts will perform including Madonna, Sting, Spinal Tap, Smashing Pumpkins, The Police, Dave Matthews & Genesis. Cities hosting the event include Rutherford NJ, Sydney, London, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Hamburg and Rio de Janeiro. As for NBC, it will carry the event on a slight delay (in case of profanity) from 8-11p on WKYC, and on Bravo, CNBC, Sundance, Telemundo, mun2 and Universal HD. Other coverage includes: *Bravo - 18 hours starting Saturday morning at 8 am until 2 am Sunday Morning. *Sundance and Universal HD - 22 hours beginning with Sydney's concert at 4 am ET and concluding at 2 am Sunday morning. *Telemundo picks up the action at 7p. *mun2 begins at 5p.

Thought you might find this article a tad funny after finding it on the newswires... Wal-Mart is known for dropping its prices. But one Monroe, Louisiana, man took it upon himself to drop the price of a plasma TV to $4.88. Police arrested Chandon Simms Tuesday on a charge of felony theft. Police say Simms carried a 42-inch Sanyo Plasma TV to a self-checkout aisle after switching the original price tag of $984 with one for only $4.88. Wal-Mart Loss Prevention officers saw Simms' pull the switch-a-roo and called police.

With about 16 months left until the presidential election, Nielsen has reported the broadcast airwaves and online buzz are heating up. Republican candidate Mitt Romney has placed more local television ads than all the other candidates combined at 4,549 as of June 10. Local TV ad spending started early this time, too, as Republican Duncan Hunter was the first to run a TV spot, starting 625 days before the November 4, 2008 election. For the Democrats, Governor Bill Richardson has run the most TV ads at 2,232 spots in Iowa and New Hampshire. Radio has seen some action, as Republican Rudolph Giuliani has placed 642 spots in many major markets with emphasis in Kansas City, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Providence. According to Nielsen BuzzMetrics, Democrats have owned the online world so far with a 64.3% buzz share compared to the Republicans at 35.7%. And, without running any online ads, Senator Barack Obama has a 2 to 1 lead with online buzz volume through blogs and discussion at 45.5% share c...

Want to re-live some great TV memories with shows like "Hogan's Heroes," "Happy Days," "Gilligan Island," "Home Improvement," and hundreds more? Check out this website I found called Television Tunes . There is a huge archive of over 750 TV theme songs, all indexed alphabetically in the MP3 format which you can download to your computer. Be warned, it's addictive!

This time, we sat down with morning news anchor John Anderson and asked him some questions about his daily duties at WKYC and a few personal things he cared to share. John also has started a blog called " Pan Ohio Hope Riding ." Q: What was your first job anchoring the news? John: My first TV job was actually in high school. We had a cable TV station inside my high school in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. I hosted a weekly show called Park Sports. I interviewed coaches of our high school teams. My first paying job was weekend sports anchor in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I was hired when I was a junior in college. It was a lucky break that came my way. Q: What time do you have to get up in the morning to be at the station? John: I actually wake up at different times. On the days my wife works, I sleep earlier and get up by 5pm to be with the kids. Other days, I sleep until 8pm so that I can see the kids before bedtime and read stories. The schedule is different almost everyday of the w...